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The mystery man Jho Low trusted with billions

Low Taek Jho or Jho Low was undoubtedly the puppet master behind the world’s biggest-ever financial fraud. But he needed people he could trust absolutely to pull it off, including operating bank accounts in Singapore and Switzerland where much of the billions of 1Malaysia Development Bhd money was laundered.

The key person appears to have been Eric Tan Kim Loong. At one stage, it was thought that Tan, who was not an employee of 1MDB, was Jho Low using a fake name.

Last week, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) produced a photograph of Tan, who is now wanted not just by Malaysia but also Singapore.

We pieced together information from the US Department of Justice and the Malaysian Auditor-General’s Report to explain what Tan did, as well as the role played by two 1MDB executives wanted by MACC — Casey Tang Keng Chee and Jasmine Loo Ai Swan.

For more details on how money that originated in 1MDB was moved to the accounts of various people, including former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, through Tan's hands at the instruction of Jho Low, pick up the latest issue of The Edge.